We got to interview the president of Kappa Sigma, Christian Albano about one of the most popular philanthropic events on campus: Super Hungerfest. He gave us the inside scoop on what it’s like to be president of a fraternity and run this huge event with a great cause.
Her Campus Adelphi: What inspired Kappa Sigma to begin the Super Hungerfest?
Christian Albano: We’re a bunch of guys and we all know football. Not everyone’s the same, of course. Most most of us love football and the Super Bowl is one of the biggest events in the country. Being in a fraternity kind of lends to the stereotype of drinking and eating on the for the Super Bowl. Pick out drink a bunch of beers. That’s stereotype for fraternity men. It started as an event to do something good for the community using something we love to be at stereotype at the same time. Because it would be expecting us to do one thing but were using this event to make a big impact on the community.
HCA: What exactly do your proceeds go to?
CA: It goes to Island Harvest. It’s the biggest food bank on Long Island.
HCA: How does the hunger for us to work? What occurs during it?
CA: Situationally the way the event is set up, we host a kick-off event on our campus the day before the Super Bowl. And at that it’s kind of like an information event where we have speakers from Island Harvest to raise awareness of hunger on Long Island because when you think of hunger and Nassau County you don’t really put them together. You don’t think of it as a huge problem because it’s one of the more well-off areas in the country. But hunger he’s actually a huge issue. The kind of host this event to start raising awareness and people come from around the community and they bring donations. Our brothers provide entertainment and play music. It’s all a good way to kick off the event and when that event starts it kicks off the fast. What we do as a group to raise awareness for hunger on Long Island. We fast for 24 hours we leading up to the Super Bowl, which is on Sunday. So from 6PM on Saturday to 6 PM on Sunday, we fast. We don’t drink anything except water, nothing with protein, to help raise awareness for Long Island. At night we going to spend the time as brothers making sure everyone can get through the fast something that we all have to deal with on a daily basis. When we wake up in the morning we go round the local community to raise awareness and collect nonperishable food or monetary donations. This year we’re trying to set up something with Island harvest a couple of supermarket drives supermarkets on Friday and Saturday. So we’re working on that right now.
HCA: How can people on campus get involved with the Hungerfest?
CA: By coming to the kick off event, they can become more aware of the situation. We’re going to have donation boxes in each residence hall. Where they can drop items that they pick up from one of the stores on campus. Maybe they can pick up something extra with their meal plan and drop it in the box. We just attending the kick off. We’re going to have a table on Friday and where people can come drop things off and donate.
HCA: Do you have any goal for this year’s Hungerfest? How do you plan to achieve them?
CA:We definitely want to try to beat last year’s goal. I also really want to beat our most successful year. That’s why we are trying to set up the supermarket drive, and after speaking with Island harvest they say it’s a great way to raise a lot more than what we raised in the past. Our goal is to definitely beat our record raising a ton of food. We come close in the past but I think we can do it this year. The supermarket drive will really help us out.
HCA: Is there any other events that Kappa Sigma has planned for the community or any other causes?
CA: Later in the semester will be doing another one of our traditional events. We haven’t done it for as long as Super Hungerfest. We may be only done it for the last five years or so but it’s called Sleep-out for the Soldiers. As an organization, Kappa Sigma philanthropy’s cause is military heroes and we do sleep out for the soldiers to raise awareness for veterans and those who are currently overseas. And what we do at that event is, we set up the whole field on campus with a bunch of tents. We have a few games like a volleyball and frisbee. We camp out all night. We sleep in tents on campus overnight to raise awareness and experience the small sacrifice for what the soldiers have sacrificed for us. We usually do that when the weather gets a little bit warmer. It can still be pretty cold in the spring semester especially around this time. Usually that’s around late March or early April.
HCA: What has been your favorite part about running the Super Hungerfest?
CA: I’m just really excited to do this event with my brothers. And really get to spend time with them and do something good. Because it’s so much fun. It’s not a task or anything. It’s a great bonding experience. I’ve been really happy with being able to get close with my brothers to do this.
HCA: Yeah it sounds like a tough experience. I’m sure it really bring you guys closer together. So what’s been the most challenging thing about putting it together?
CA: It is a lot to manage and put together. Being a full-time student and applying to law school right now, it’s a little bit hard to try to put together. It’s a lot to manage with all this on my plate, I don’t think it’s too much, fortunately. Definitely how big of an event it is. It’s really one of the bigger events on our campus. Just trying to make sure that everything is going to be worked out OK.
Be sure to donate to one of the Hungerfest boxes and join Kappa Sigma at their kick-off event on Saturday!